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Author: sweetlemonims

A recent adventure to the city prompted a visit to my temple, the Nintendo Store. I love Nintendo.

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Anyway, it got me thinking about my early days of mommyhood, and how fast my son is growing. Now, I’m crying. Babies grow fast! He’s not even three yet, but he’s already a big boy. Moving on, I love playing video games. I married a gamer. Naturally, we would love for our child to love games, too! Success!

While I was pregnant, I didn’t think about the sleepless nights with a nursing newborn. Instead, I was planning his birthday parties in my head. I was thinking about themes, locations, etc. I wasn’t concerned with how I would be able to get anything done. Little did I know, planning anything – even going to the store – was ten times harder with a little one to think about first.

The first party I ever planned as a first time mom was our son, Marcello’s, baptism. The party was phenomenal, as well as the day, but the creating and crafting was so stressful with a demanding nurser! I was exhausted, and so was Marcello! He slept every minute of that party!!! The planning became an obsession from every day excursions to the store to bedtime routines, so when Marcello’s first birthday started creeping up on the calendar, I knew exactly what I had to do – a ONE UP BIRTHDAY PARTY! He was turning one, and in my ridiculous mind, I literally imagined him as leveling up. I’m nuts. After the craziness that I experienced planning Marcello’s baptism by myself, I knew I had to ask for some help, so I did what I could, and sought out the very best for our boy’s big day.

My idea for his first birthday party involved inspiration from Nintendo’s iconic game, Super Mario Bros., which included a one up mushroom, a gold coin box, a goomba, the pipe plant from the game, and some other gaming elements.

My beloved Nintendo still plays – with a lot of blowing into the cartridges, and prayers.

There is no short supply of Nintendo related birthday accessories, but I wanted something different and hand made. I decided to make a gold coin box invitation, and popping out of gold box would be a one up mushroom that held the invitation information. I made a stencil of the gold box, and cut each element. I did the same with the one up mushroom. I thought I had a novel idea, but if you do a quick search online, you’ll find different variations of this type of invitation. So, like-minded moms — UNITE!

The invitation! 65lb cardstock, gold fasters, printer, word program for your text, pliers to remove the faster clips from the claws, hot glue for the fasteners, paper glue for the cardstock, stencils, pencils, patience!

I also thought it would be fun to take photos of Marcello myself. It was a disaster. I needed a “smash cake,” and thought it would be cool if Mario smashed a goomba! I decided to make a goomba smash cake, and then quickly changed my mind! I happened to be watching Good Morning America one morning, and a nice cake shop had donated a birthday cake to this sweet little boy named Colin, for his birthday. They made the most awesome cake only a little gamer could love! I contacted them, because they happened to be in Queens, NY! My ‘hood!! Heather from 8 Bit Cake Shop: I love you, and you made the most delicious goomba cake ever!

Marcello’s smash cake – Goomba cake by 8 Bit Cake Shop

For the back drop of his photos, I used a sky blue back drop, and cut some clouds to emulate the background of the game. I found some cheesy brick wrapping paper, it didn’t have that brown brick look, but it did the job. I cut some pipe shaped pipes. The backdrop looked great when it was done!

I needed an outfit for Marcello, so I contacted the only person I knew who could create something for me in a flash, and that is Kiddie Kaps by Vanessa. She is an old friend of mine, and is so passionate about her craft. If you need cute things for your sons, daughters, or their American Girl dolls – contact her!

Unfortunately, Marcello didn’t want to comply.

Needless to say, he never smashed the cake, and the goomba lived for another day.

Poor kiddo.

We had two parties the same day – one for his little friends, and the other with our immediate and extended families.

We had two parties, and not one, not two, but three cakes! And what do you see above? The ultimate cake! The one up mushroom cake baked, designed with love by Ashley! The detail was unbelievable. She even added the brown brick to the cake platform.

There you have it. I learned a lot my first year as a mom, 1. It’s okay to ask for help. 2. Always give your child a nap before you want to smash a cake. 3. Don’t take on too much, and give up some control.

As tired as this may sound, they only turn one once. Well, I’m tired, so I have an excuse.

Boy, does he make the crazy, sleepless nights worth it. I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

I am usually pretty easy going, and a little crazy when it comes to orders and clients. I am also very friendly, so I may even be a Chatty Cathy – some clients respond well to this, some don’t, and that’s okay. It’s like when you’re getting your hair done – some people like to chat during the whole process and some don’t.

Sweet Lemonims is still a very young business, even though we have been working at it since 2013 – we’re still not very well known, so the small support base of clients we do have, we hold near and dear to our hearts. One client in particular is Vicki – she is a very sweet and easy going person who wanted to make her daughter Riley’s first birthday the best party ever. Vicki chose an owl theme with 80’s neon pinks and fluorescent greens – the color scheme was pretty rad for a first birthday, and I was up for the challenge.

The cardstock was super hard to find in such large quantities, so when I ended up finally finding the perfect combination of colors, I felt like Lisa Frank anointed me with the colors of her crazy/beautiful rainbow.

These were ballsy colors for a first birthday, and not your typical first birthday theme. It was like an edgy, rock-star owl party and the final outcome totally rocked! And as much as Vicki is adamant about her not having a creative bone in her body, don’t believe her. She has a knack for planning parties, and knows how to stretch her dollars. If that isn’t creative, I don’t know what is. She also had the great idea of making her own centerpieces, and to go with the vibrant and happy colors, she chose gumballs to coordinate with the centerpieces. Genius!

Table Accessories

I am so happy and proud that Sweet Lemonims was apart of the process – from invitations to party decor to accessories.

With Vicki’s vision, and 3am brainstorming – no joke, I don’t think any mom ever sleeps – we got this really fun, super funky, colorful, and bright party suite complete!

Thank you, Vicki for allowing Sweet Lemonims to be apart of your party and Riley’s very special first birthday! Happy Birthday, cutie!!

Owl be seeing you again soon…hopefully for another party, or for a glass of wine — lots and lots of wine!

When I was a kid, I really loved to scrapbook. There used to be a store called, Rag Shop, that my sister and I would venture to every Sunday. (Rag Shop was like a smaller, ghetto Michael’s.) This store wasn’t too big, but big enough where we could stay for a good two hours without ever passing each other twice. Many dollars later, we would fill my sister’s Camry with bags of scrapbook sheets, cardstock, funky stickers (those were the best), glue, and other chotchkies (possibly a shadow box, or two). Then the items would stay in their bags for a good week before they saw the light of the day. Hey, it was Sunday, what do you expect?

My point is, arts and crafts has been in our blood, my blood, for a long time. When we decided to add invitations and party accessories to our line on Etsy, we did not think that there would be such a demand for products made from paper. Thankfully, there are people out there that appreciate paper, and how delicate it really is to work with.

In my past life, I worked for a publishing company in a big city with a lot of cool people. One of our vendors was in China (big surprise!), and believe it or not, a lot of the items we asked them to create were hand made! Yes, machines and printers did the bulk of the job, but the actual hand work was all done by them. Even though many people don’t appreciate the overseas factories, you have to give them some credit where it is due. Quality control is an arduous task, so when you do get that one picture book with the registration totally off on your kid’s favorite page, or when the last puzzle piece doesn’t fit exactly right – cue up Alanis Morisette – remember, these are real people building, creating, and following the instructions from the production and art departments.

Thinking about this now, I feel bad for leaving all of my impulse buys from Rag Shop in the bag for a few extra days. Inside that bag was the hard work of a factory worker “half-finishing” something just so I can sticker some 4-color scrapbook pages with some pasted family photos, and call it arts and crafts.

I need to say thank you. Now that we create each item by hand (we buy the paper, of course! We’re not a mill for crying out loud!), I appreciate the hard work of the factories that were responsible for fulfilling an order of 4,000 units within a three month time frame. That doesn’t include proofing, approvals, etc. Sweet Lemonims turn around time is two weeks for any quantity of order, and that includes design, mocking, proofing, sourcing, etc., it’s a lot.

I just wanted to say, thanks. Thank you, paper.

You will quickly learn how much of a Disney fanatic I am – so much that I have finagled my way into making us take three family vacations to Disney World with our now two year old son. Yes, our son has been to Disney World more times than some older kids, but we love it, he loves it, and we’re together as a family.

Us. In all of our dorky glory.

The 90’s sitcom was right – Family Matters. There’s your pun for the year. Did I (seriously) do that? How rude?! My, lanta. Okay, sorry. I’m mixing my TGIF, but you get the point.

The incomparable Rosetta LeNoire.

Mooooving on…

My nephew is going on his first Disney trip – and not just Disney – he’s going to the mother land, Disneyland, as his very first Disney experience. So I thought I would make him some iron-on decals for some shirts I picked up. He’s a good kid.

He’s too cool for Disney Bounding. If you don’t know what that is, it’s made for people who look good wearing a garbage bag with a bow. Seriously. I couldn’t even do it if I tried. So, for frumps like me, a DIY shirt is the way to go.

I use the Cricut cutting machine, some good quality vinyl, a weeding tool (looks like a dentist plaque picker), my trusty ruler, an iron, scissors, and a nice cotton shirt.

I would like to add that I am not paid to say I use Cricut, I just like them is all! However, Cricut, if you’re out there – please send me free mats and blades, as I go through them like water.

You don’t need a fancy cutting machine, but if you want your DIY iron-ons to look less DIY, it’s necessary.

I started with a basic design, but tweeked it to my needs by using Cricut’s slice tool.

Look how cute this is!

Then I sized it by adjusting the canvas in Design Space, which was a children’s size large t-shirt.

I chose my colors to sync to the correct template. Before cutting, make sure your Cricut is set to Vinyl, which will cut the top layer, but leave the backing intact for an ideal weed. I love weed(ing)! Mirror the image. Load. Cut!

What you get after weeding. I’m sorry I didn’t photograph that part- I was sweating and tired at that point. The backing is a little sticky, but not too sticky. Place the decal on to your garment, and adjust to your desired location accordingly. Your eyes never lie – mine do, though – they’re jerks.

I should add that I purchased the t-shirt for $5 from Target – it’s by Circo – and they had a plethora of colors to choose from. It was actually the best material I have worked with, too. Without the cost of the tools that I had (like my cricut, my weeding tools, my brain) – this project was $15 to make. Not bad!

There! Done! I’ll follow up with a photo of him wearing it in the happiest place on Earth!